January 2009

Employment legislation update

April 2009
Minimum statutory holiday entitlement increase to 28 days (5.6 weeks)
The statutory holiday entitlement will increase from 24 to 28 days.
This will be capped at 28 days.

Flexible working extended
The right to request flexible working is extended to parents of children up to the age of 16 years.

The right to time off for public duties is extended
This will cover roles such as members of the probation board, court boards and youth offenders’ panel members. Others roles are being proposed.

Changes to employing migrant workers
Employers planning to recruit skilled workers from outside Europe had to
register with the UK Border Agency by 1 October 2008 to ensure that they were licensed in time for the scheme going live at the end of November.

Tiers two and five of the new points based immigration system were introduced on 27 November 2008 (Tier 1 was already open). These tiers cover skilled workers with job offers to fill gaps in the labour market, and youth mobility migrant workers and temporary workers coming to the UK covering
non-economic objectives.

Under the new rules:

• any business must register with the agency as a sponsor before they can bring migrant workers from outside the EEA into the UK to work
  
  
• as a condition of keeping their licences, sponsors would need to alert the UK Border Agency if immigrants do not comply with their immigration conditions – for example if they disappear or do not turn up for their job or course; any sponsor that does not comply with this requirement will risk losing its licence

Further information is available from the ACAS website on www.acas.org.uk